We Are Human

A co-creative company, we create real impact through storytelling, behaviour design and technology insights www.wearehuman.cc

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Snaps from Kahoot! @ SXSWedu

Inventor and Professor Dr Alf Inge Wang being interviewed 

Johan pitching at LAUNCHedu

Jamie demoing at LAUNCHedu Showcase

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Look at the bright side: designing a service that facilitates learning

The huge challenge we face, designing software for the education market, is to convince people that what they believe are barriers, actually are opportunities. We believe that we need to do this by creating a service that inspire people to break down these barriers or overcome them by seeing a bigger picture. 

People complain about lack of connectivity in classrooms & lecture halls around the world, and yes this is a problem - see this BBC article School wi-fi 'not fit for 21st Century learning'. 

However, since students have smartphones with 3g connectivity and that more and more schools and universities have good WIFI networks, we can design services that work in the current infrastructure but also inspire the institutions to upgrade. We believe that these upgrades will not be debated when great services appear and are used with great outcomes - but in the beginning we need to focus on early adopters that overcome barriers as they see the true benefit of the service.

The fact that there is 3g and WIFI available in some educational setting is a huge opportunity, so we keep our mind focused on the awesome fact that this can be utilised. If we do our job right.. maybe every single learning space will be supercharged with amazing connectivity. 

For now we will keep on developing services that inspire our users to break down the barriers and prove the opportunity is massively untaped. Follow us on www.getkahoot.com to see how we we keep our promise.

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A year of Kahoot!

Morgan pulled another classic doodle out of the bag, this time because in January team Kahoot! went on an epic trip to NTNU in Trondheim. The birthplace of the joint venture Mobitroll (Troll hunter reference anyone?).

Kahoot! is now well on its way - sign up at www.getkahoot.com - and we look forward to be publishing some quite exciting news shortly.

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Game Based Learning In Business - Speaking @ The 2nd International JoinGame Conference

The founders of We Are Human will share their learnings, examples and insights from 7 years of creating offline, online and interactive games for some of the worlds largest corporations + a unique insight into the game based pedagogy behind Kahoot!

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A global 2012

Mobitroll & Kahoot! 2012 started with the birth of the Mobitroll, our joint venture with NTNU. Mobitroll made its first public appearance at GDC in San Francisco in March, before taking us to Innovation House in Palo Alto and RocketSpace in San Francisco. Here we were selected as 1 of 8 companies on the first Tech incubator Programme by Innovation Norway. 

After building a smart phone controlled rodeo bull for milkshake brand Litago, Mobitroll's focus has been on designing our new EdTech platform, Kahoot! - which is currently being used in schools, universities and businesses, with feedback in equally humbling and exciting measure. 

This has seen us receive several research grants from Innovation Norway and The Research Council of Norway, and Kahoot! will be a core focus in 2013 as it leaves beta mode for public use. Oh and we have been picked as 1 of 12 to pitch at SXSWedu LAUNCHedu - validation that Kahoot! is one of the top 12 higher education tech startups in the world. 

The We Are Human co-creative team has grown

In January, Matt kicked off our branding work for eBook discovery service, Jellybooks.

Andy has developed many web projects for us, including the new We Are Human website.

Scott travelled with the Mobitroll gang to San Francisco taking part in TiNC.

Greg joined the ranks in May, and had instant impact by getting us to the House of Lords and the Tablets For Schools program.

George came on-board in June as lead developer, bringing Kahoot! to life.

And, Morgan has continued with his fine illustration work, including the image at the top of this post.

  On average, in 2012, We Are Human has delivered: A major Wah! Session a month, spoken at a major event every second month, launched a 'start up' every quarter and added a co-creative every quarter. 

Our work has continued to spread over a number of sectors, cities, countries and continents. We've been involved with #edtech #servicedesign #behaviourdesign #gamestorming #digitapublishing #socialtv #coworking in places such as London, Oslo, Boston, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Austin, New York, Innsbruck, Helsinki and Trondheim.

We have spoken, workshoped or exhibited at:

Game Developer Conference, San Francisco

SxSW, Austin

TiNC, Palo Alto / San Francisco

Inclusive Design Workshops, Oslo

Inspiring the Future, London

Apps for Good, London

UCL Mobile Academy, London

Service Design in Tourism, Innsbruck

People Centred Future, Helsinki Design Week

Start Up Village, Oslo Innovation Week

Most Contagious, London

Mindshare Huddle, London

We have launched: Jellybooks.com, mobitroll.no, getkahoot.com, artmotion.eu, kingsplaceevents.co.uk

And of course, the latest incarnation of our own website… wearehuman.cc.

Have a very Merry Christmas, and we look forward to seeing what 2013 has in store for us all.

[wearehumanlondon]

Charles Armstrong presenting The Trampery @ Pecha Kucha Night vol 24 Oslo

Charles Armstrong presenting The Trampery @ Pecha Kucha Night vol 24 Oslo from We Are Human on Vimeo.

Charles formed Circus Foundation 1997, a social incubator which set up a variety of research projects in the UK, Ghana and Sicily. He then went onto co-founding Trampoline System, which became world's first technology business to raise finance (£500,000) through equity crowdfunding. Which was followed by The Trampery, the first shared workspace in London's Shoreditch neighbourhood and opulent shared workspace in Shoreditch, East London hosting some of the UK's leading start-ups. This is the 20x20 Pecha Kucha presenting The Trampery

thetrampery.com pecha-kucha.org/

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Unfolding phone: The Smarter Phone

The Design For Your Product Lifetime asked students to design a smart product that is smarter environmentally; a product that can be repaired and will stand the test of time, even if some of its components need to be replaced. Sustainability and repairability are important considerations for designers at all career levels.

Second Place went to Rocio Garcia Ramos and Bernat Lozano Rabella from Elisava Escola Superior de Disseny de Barcelona for a Smarter Phone with removable parts, a customizable interior and endless exterior combinations that play with colors for housing, buttons and structure. Judges were impressed with the compelling concept and attention to lifecycle as well as the elegant unfolding structure.

Read more here:

http://www.core77.com/blog/design_for_your_product_lifetime/

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Sketchnotes from our Mindshare Huddle intro to #Gamestorming #mshuddle

We were asked by the creative collective Converge + UK to facilitate the Gamestorming session they set up at the Mindshare Huddle. 

We had good fun, worked on a super tight timeframe, and did our best to open up the attendee's eyes to how easy and powerful it is to add game-structure to their meetings. There was a mix of Mindshare employees and clients such as, IBM BP and River Island present.

Our goal was to show how simple games can quickly generate a different angle and point of view, but also as important ensure the group quickly established an internal trust to allow ideas to flow.

We picked the theme of user engagement.  The intention wasn't to actually solve this, but rather create artefacts and dialog that could kickstart the process, open up to new ways of looking at the problem, while ensuring we had people centred approach.

We used a mix of games such as the Balloon avatar to open up, Float the question to ensure player could get assistance and the exploration game The Desire Engine to get to grips with the theme.

Key leanings form this session was to demonstrate how quickly a group of strangers can get started solving the problem at hand, if the necessary warm up and artefacts are generated.

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Why I am excited about PICA tablet game and why you should be as well!

PICA will become the digital slice of the Adalia Enrichment Program. The program uses an immersive, contextual, and play-based approach to Chinese language fluency, particularly aimed at children from 2 to 6 years of age.

Peach Ice Cream Adventures (PICA) will be a tablet-based adventure game, specifically aimed at 3-6 year olds, as a second-language learning tool. The initial focus is on Mandarin Chinese, as PICA is a “digital/virtual slice” of a successful Early Education program that engages students in the Chinese language within the context of Science and Math.  PICA will have a Parental Dashboard that will allow parents to view their kids’ play patterns. 

Check out the Facebook page to get informed of when the Kickstarter funding goes live. 

The founder is Vicky Wu Davis a respected gaming industry expert and successful entrepreneur which I have had the pleasure of working with. We are excited about her collaboration with an expert at MIT Media Lab to incorporate social robotics, as we also work to create transmedial experiences for education and see a clear alignment.

I am excited about PICA because it going to be a catalyst for a chain of innovative teaching mechanisms that I believes will make learning more exciting and engaging for all, not just children struggling with traditional teaching styles.

Ready my story below that I shared with Vicky and the reason why we have chosen to work with and support PICA going forward.

Johan’s Story I am not a parent yet, but my support of Peach Ice Cream Adventures (PICA) comes from a different personal angle…myself as a learner.  Being dyslexic, as well as a kinesthetic learner,  I have naturally been drawn to holistic and playful learning methods. My less than ideal experiences with a ridged and one-way educational system in Norway, UK and USA have inspired me to develop my own views on learning & teaching based on visual, play, and game-based learning (which I have spent the last 5 years researching).

I am very excited about PICA, as it based on core principles I believe are key to an engaging learning experience. PICA, as a tablet application, appeals to a wide range of learning styles:  the kinesthetic learner is able to touch the screen, the visual learner can view pictures to help with retention, and the auditory learner can hear.  PICA’s  STEM based curriculum is heuristic, story-based and combines context to the learning which I believe is vital, regardless of a child’s learning style.  PICA incorporates core principles for good pedagogy.  A lot of educational tech content is focused a checklist of what has to be taught, and not enough on how much the learner will actually retain; learning  goals are centered around acquiring small discrete bits of dis-embedded information.  PICA’s storytelling is a core component to holistic educational software that brings re-playability.  Stories bring context (aka meaning and motivation) to what we learn.  Context leads to curiosity, and curiosity is linked to the brain’s pleasure system, thus it will become a positive, fun and addictive learning experience. With PICA, kids will understand the purposefulness of why they need to “master the knowledge”, because there is a usefulness through context and achievement of game goals.  So even though second-language learning is not my personal primary interest in PICA, I am a huge supporter of the project because I believe in the teaching methodology of achieving learning objects within context through a wider curriculum.

Another area that makes me very excited about PICA is Vicky’s greater vision of creating a learning eco-system with platform-content-community.  Even though it’s not mentioned much because Vicky’s initial focus is creating PICA with support through Kickstarter, I did want to bring to light what she would like to make happen in the future.  I met Vicky many years ago because she was a pioneer and champion of “transmedial access”, and it’s something I’m a big fan of too.  She believed that a variety of mediums can complement each other to create a holistic and varied experience of particular IP or content.  She originally focused on transmedial access for the videogame industry, but she is now turning her focus onto creating a learning eco-system.  Between PICA as an interactive learning experience, her PICA as an e-book (which I believe she will offer as a Kickstarter reward), and her collaboration with an MIT Media Lab friend of hers to incorporate social robotics, it fits in with my own work and desire to create transmedial experiences for education.

[wearehumanlondon]

Pinch links displays to enable co-creation via iPhones

Basically Pinch enables iPhones to become smart giant Sifteo's. We are quite excited about this technology as it opens up a huge potential for Mobitroll and our educational platform Kahoot!. Yet another technology confirming the trend, desire and need for 'virtual' experiences that happens in social physical space.

A research group from Tokyo have worked up a Pinch interface that puts the user into another display environment where screens serve as visual-display tiles, working together. Even if your smart device screens are of different sizes, the Pinch interface allows them to join forces, resulting in one single display, like a slick, if out of joint, tile puzzle.

According to Takashi Ohta, (Associate Professor at Tokyo University of Technology),  enabling Pinch "fun" communications, where people gather, place their devices next to one another, and communicate ideas and images in novel ways. Check out the video to get inspired.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-11-interface-link-multiple-screens-video.html#jCp

[wearehumanlondon]

Snaps from the The Mobile Academy lecture at UCL

Yesterday we lectured at The Mobile Academy by UCL and Mobile Monday. 50+ engaged and empowered 'students' took part in a creative session where we explored the concept of behaviour design, piloted Kahoot!, and introduced them to the The Desire Engine canvas which we have developed in conjunction with Nir Eyal. 

Emphasising yet again on understanding user behaviour and context

Morgan Doodled the lecture and captured key interactions

Understanding the language is a core element in behaviour design

Interactive classes is our passion and trademark - learn by doing. We ask the users to apply the theory to their own ideas

Introducing The Desire Engine canvas 

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User Experience ≠ Ease of Use

Is a user experience necessarily synonymous with easy of use? Usually we say 'ease of use' is the path of less resistance. However, sometimes the appropriate user experience is not designed to be that easy after all. 

We Are Human is in the business of designing user experiences. For us it's essential not just to look at the immediate functional needs of the user, but also analyse the desired outcome, now and long term. 

We have learnt that our brains respond better to difficulty than we imagine, and sometimes the route to fulfilment is the path of resistance. Anyone that has written a good creative brief knows that obstacles boost creativity. Nothing like a challenge to get those creative minds firing on all cylinders.

Desirable difficulties - designing a better education

We are on a mission to enable a change in how education is delivered. We are soon to beta launch the game-based educational web application Kahoot! (getkahoot.com), which  has forced us to uncovered some truly wonderful insights.

'In schools, teachers and pupils alike often assume that if a concept has been easy to learn, then the lesson has been successful. But numerous studies have found that when classroom material is harder to absorb, pupils retain more of it over the long term, and understand it on a deeper level.'  Ian Leslie - The uses of difficulty (Intelligent Life, Nov/Dec 2012 edition).

Gamebased learning can, if incorporated correctly, enhance education significantly. An example of this is through 'desirable difficulties' - if you are an avid gamer you will know this addiction.

Robert Bjork, of the University of California, coined the phrase "desirable difficulties" to describe the counter intuitive notion that learning should be made harder by, for instance, spacing session further apart so that students have to make more effort to recall what they learnt last time.

We believe that by combining carefully 'designed' obstacles with engaging experiences we can inspire educators into the 21st century. 

Psychologists at Princeton found that students remember reading material better when it was printed in an ugly font. 

Scientists from the University of Amsterdam recently carried out a series of experiments to investigate how obstacles affect our thought processes. They discovered that if you are faced with obstacles you displayed greater cognitive agility; you are more likely to take leaps of association and make unusual connections.

They also uncovered the effect of unexpected obstacles will increase your "perceptual scope" - you will 'take a mental step back to see the bigger picture'… a behaviour we think more of us should display. 

We can all agree it's a bit too easy these days to ramble on endlessly on your blog or post your latest mindfart on Facebook. Often I wish social media companies designed more obstacles into their software to increase your perceptual scope!

The Heart, Hand, Mind is a holistic process we follow when designing experiences. 

^Johan

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We are now Apps for Good Experts

Following our successful Masterclass at the Apps for Good awards earlier this year, have we now been invited to become Apps for Good Experts (http://network.appsforgood.org).

There is a growing network of experts who have signed up and we are chuffed to be part of this network of experts, such as Bob Schukai, Head of Mobile at Thomson Reuters, who last week flew in from New York and did an amazing expert visit at Wick High School in the very North of Scotland.

Here are some impressions from his visit:

“You don't have to be an expert in mobile technology to be in the program. All you have to do is listen, guide, mentor, and give constructive feedback. On my last trip to Wick, Scotland, I had the chance to personally meet with 53 kids taking part in the Apps For Good program. The kids are responding to the challenge to make Britain the best and most competitive place in the world for future entrepreneurs. Take the time to help them make this a reality!”

Apps for Good in The Economist Last week The Economist ran a short article including Apps for Good!

http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/10/unusual-entrepreneurs?fsrc=scn/tw_ec/great_talent_can_come_from_anywhere

See the video from the Apps for Good event on top of our homepage

http://wearehuman.cc/

More about our masterclass here:

http://wearehuman.posterous.com/apps-for-good-masterclass-with-we-are-human

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The National Theatre of Scotland with a promenade performance at the Trampery

National Theatre of Scotland via the Barbican is hosting an exciting promenade performance called  'Enquirer', where the audience are following the performers around the venue.

This collaboration with the London Review of Books, is a fascinating production based on interviews with leading figures in the UK newspaper industry. 'Enquirer' blends fact, anecdote and passionate opinion in a promenade production created as a rapid response to these incredible recent events.

'Shockingly timely' The Scotsman ★★★★ 

Paper cuts: Gabriel Quigley in Enquirer ©Tristram Kenton

What the does the press say?

"The National Theatre of Scotland's portrait of the British press mixes brutal cynicism and marshmallow sentimentality with eerie accuracy, Jane Shilling, The Telegraph."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/9594635/Enquirer-Mother-at-the-Trampery-London-review.html#

When it focuses on subjects familiar to the Leveson Inquiry, this dramatic investigation of journalism proves electrifying" - Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/72d1cc5e-1132-11e2-8d5f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz28orwEmmO

The venue us provided by Mother at The Trampery.

Mother at The Trampery 188 - 192 St John Street Clerkenwell London EC1V 4JY

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What does ‘people centred’ design mean to your organisation?

Posted from: CA, USA

We were asked after Helsinki Design Week to briefly answer the following question:

Q - What does ‘people centred’ design mean to your organisation?

A - It’s the fundamental strategy that underpins all the work at We Are Human. The company was founded to inspire change and ensure sustainable solutions by applying people centred design principles. Our holistic design and strategy process is applied with what we call a ‘people centred lens’.

The ‘people centred’ design at We Are Human is a frame of mind, we focus on inclusive and co-creative processes that ensures that every part of an organisation is aligned and capable of asking the right questions.

People centred design allows us to focus on the aspect of products and businesses that have lasting impacts. We believe that desire, passion, excitement, fun & play are key components of people centred design, and our goal is to ensuring these qualities are embedded in everything we do.

Ps: the image is from one of our favourite hangouts in San Francisco, where found back to the true purpose of what we do.

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People Centred Future at Alto! Design factory

Here a few snaps from the talks and workshops. We will post the video and presentation as soon as we have it.

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Mapping Educational Game in the context of a classroom

We have the whole Mobitroll team assembled in London in a collaborative and highly productive effort to get all the key features ready for our 'alpha' launch of our educational game. Mapping the game in a service context of a classroom is key to ensuring the team is approaching the product in a holistic manner, and ironing out any service and user experience issues.

We have an extremely diverse team assembled and most of them have not been exposed to 'service design thinking' before. However, in an intense 3 hour session we got confirmation that both the classroom and a game can be mapped and improved using the service design canvas. 

The core benefit was the everyone, from the developers to the chairman, now has a very user centric mindset and understands how the game fits into the context of a day in the classroom, with all the potential touch points and distractions.